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Surrounded by ground dwellers

Hanging in my hammock at Rolling view group campsite 1, part of the Falls Lake SP, and I'm the only hanger. My daughter's class is having it's annual overnight camp out. For at least half the families here this their first time camping since the parents were kids. I'm happy to see them all spending time outdoors with their kids and at the same time sad to know that for many they likely won't do it again until next year.

Will get some pics in the morning so that it actually did happen.

*Heaven best have trees, because I plan to lounge for eternity.

Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement. - Mark Twain

Ok so the trip was for my daughter's class. Ended up with 18 tents and one very smart guy in a hammock. I was first to arrive and since my wife has not yet agreed tot try a hammock I proceeded to erect our very large tent. Doing a 2 person job solo is a bit of a pain and it took me nearly and hour to get that dang tent up. Yeah, I don't use it too much these days.

Setup my hammock and tarp on a pair of almost too close pines nearby so if I was needed during the night I could be right there. This took me about 10 minutes.

After another hour of me lollygagging people finally started to show up, I was worrying I was at the wrong spot up to this point. I find out from the teacher that about half the families coming had never been camping before and may need some help erecting their tents. Being the nice guy I am I offered to help as many people as I could. I was also able to carry a few loads of firewood that the teacher assistant had brought before the families started showing up.

I "helped" setup 9 or 10 tents for people who had never been camping in their adult lives. And ever one of the tents were new from REI. I guess these people had never heard of Wal-Mart.

The teacher decided to take the kids down to the lake so they could see the water and look for interesting little things, a good number of the parents decided to join them as well. So while they were gone I decided it was a good time to get a fire going before the sun went down. Was able to get a good fire in place before the group came back from the lake and I swear there must have been a marshmallow magnet in the fire because it was suddenly surrounded by kids toasting mallows on sticks, and forks, anything sharp enough to stick a marshmallow to.

Songs were sung. Dances were danced. Kids and parents alike were worn out. People began splitting off to there hovels for the night as I sat up for a bit watching the stars overhead and listening to grumbles of ground dwelling all around.

Eventually I began to hear a few of then snoring a bit and decided that it was time for me to show them all how a hammocker snores.

I left a handful of people sitting around the dying fire and headed for my hammock.

Woke up around 0530 and felt like I had slept forever. Was fully refreshed and ready for the day. I stoked the fire back to life and made myself a cup of coffee in my IMUSA 12 with my Fancy Feast Alky stove.

The tenters began slowly emerging like ground hogs checking for their shadows. With groans the worked there way through a process that resembled those pictures of mankind's evolution. Crawling to hands & feet on the ground legs bent too far, a grunt or moan and their hands come up off the ground as they hunch over too far, a groan and they stand upright leaning back a bit as they rotate at waist. Guess its a morning ritual of the groundlings as they all did it without fail. I'm so glad I don't sleep on the ground anymore. It is a silly dance to see.

And now for the Q&A:

Originally Posted by grannypat

At least the kids get introduced to camping, even if they only get to go once a year.

Yes, it i s a good thing that they were able to get out there. This was a test run for the class in preparation for their spring camping trip that the class takes every year. So by this time next year some of the kids will have more camping experience than their parents.

Originally Posted by jnunniv

yep, it's good to get them out there - even if it's only once a year....

BUT I bet if they got off the ground, they would do it more, don't you???

While everyone remarked about there being a hammock only two people took me up on my offer to give it a "test drive". One guy woke up this morning and started talking about how miserably he slept so I asked how about trying a hammock. He of course started going into a long list of reasons why he couldn't do that, all of his reason why he couldn't were the very reasons many of us switched to them. After several minutes of him just complaining and obviously not wanting to have a discussion about pros and cons I wrote him off as someone who doesn't like camping.

He was one of about a half dozen people who I helped assemble their tents. Amazingly they were all $300+ REI tents that people who never camp bought.

Originally Posted by Fronkey

So, is this like a Halloween hang?

Fronkey

I will say that is was a bit scary. I was afraid that halfway through the night they were all going to come at me like zombies.

"Haaaamoooooooock"

Originally Posted by backpakcking broof beauty

was it scary being with....uuugh! ......GROUND DWELLERS?!?!?!!?!? ssssseeeewww! i said it!
Dearly And Sincerely, Jonah! of the B B B!

Nah, I've learned to rise above their problems.

And now the video portion of the entry:

A few pics to come later.

*Heaven best have trees, because I plan to lounge for eternity.

Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement. - Mark Twain